Joe Henrich and his colleagues are shaking the foundations of psychology and economics—and hoping to change the way social scientists think about human behavior and culture.
As the three continued their work, they noticed something else that was remarkable: again and again one group of people appeared to be particularly unusual when compared to other populations—with perceptions, behaviors, and motivations that were almost always sliding down one end of the human bell curve.
In the end they titled their paper “The Weirdest People in the World?” (pdf) By “weird” they meant both unusual and Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic. It is not just our Western habits and cultural preferences that are different from the rest of the world, it appears. The very way we think about ourselves and others—and even the way we perceive reality—makes us distinct from other humans on the planet, not to mention from the vast majority of our ancestors. Among Westerners, the data showed that Americans were often the most unusual, leading the researchers to conclude that “American participants are exceptional even within the unusual population of Westerners—outliers among outliers.”
Given the data, they concluded that social scientists could not possibly have picked a worse population from which to draw broad generalizations. Researchers had been doing the equivalent of studying penguins while believing that they were learning insights applicable to all birds.
TIL that sarper duman, aka the piano cat guy, is an enthusiastic cat dad who rescues and cares for injured stray cats in istanbul.
“i always play piano at my home almost every night and whenever i sit to play, all my cats come around, they hang out with me and they love to sleep around the piano.”
“they are peaceful, i am more at peace thanks to them”
one of his cats is blind. "his happiest moment is at the window. listening to the birds, getting fresh air is our favorite activity. i hang out an hour every day at the window with my angel.“
there are currently 19 cats living in his home and he started a fundraiser to help cover their medical costs.
stormborns
blakekathryn
ellievsbear
theartofmadeline
baratheonpilled
